


Pompeii

by CaelumLapis



Category: Smallville
Genre: M/M, Spoilers: Specific for Season Three’s Covenant and Season Four’s Crusade.
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-21
Updated: 2020-06-21
Packaged: 2021-03-04 11:01:05
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,745
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24848695
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CaelumLapis/pseuds/CaelumLapis
Summary: The seductive pull of oblivion whispered softly, and he felt himself being pulled slowly into it as he dropped to his knees.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 2





	Pompeii

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer is, I don’t own them, not even a little. This story depicts an alternate universe (AU) by takes events from Season Three’s Covenant and Season Four’s Crusade and going in distinctly different directions with them than the show did. This story also contains subject matter and/or themes that may be objectionable to some readers, so buckle up!

Oxygen hissed softly in the pastel confines of a hospital room. Clark lay silently, battered beyond casual recognition. The specialists had indicated that the majority of his more significant damage was internal. Only when he had opened his eyes did Lex believe that it was really him. He’d spoken then, his voice weak and his words bunching together strangely in between laborious breathing.

“I’m…sorry-Lex,” he’d said, and his eyes had closed again for such a long time that Lex thought he’d fallen back asleep, or worse. But then they’d opened again.

“I have… to-tell-you-things.” Clark had wheezed, and he refused to be discouraged from whatever it was he’d decided to say.

Watery green eyes looked up at him while Clark confessed things Lex had never expected to hear, in a voice that sounded like dying. Shaky, brief details of a split, physical and mental, in the Kawatche caves. That he was extraterrestrial. That the split had left him not entirely human, but much closer than before. Close enough to be broken. That his more powerful, more alien half was named Kal-El. That Kal had done this to him, and that he had all of Clark’s superhuman abilities. That Kal was dangerous, but he also had Clark’s weakness. Meteor rock could hurt him. Maybe even kill him. Clark had called it kryptonite. 

Lex had remained quiet, his pale fingers wrapped around the faded golden skin of Clark’s hand, his mind wrapping around what he was being told. He was silent for a long time, fingers brushing absently against Clark’s hand. 

“Why are you telling me this, Clark?” 

Clark had only looked at him, giving his hand a faint squeeze as he closed his eyes. Lex watched him sleep, cradling Clark’s inert hand in both of his. 

When Clark’s body finally gave in, organs failing in steady succession over the next three days, Lex had been there. Martha had hovered in the doorway during the first two, arms crossed over her chest, her face drawn and pale with the knowledge that she would bury her husband and son in the span of a week. She was not there when Clark passed on, and Lex felt that was in her best interests. 

He’d heard the last whispered words that struggled from Clark. “Love you… always… loved… you.” They were followed by a rattled, gasping breath that still haunted Lex’s dreams. 

He’d brushed his fingers over Clark’s face, closing unseeing green eyes. He’d leaned down, pressing a soft kiss to lips that were still warm. He’d looked down at Clark silently for a long time, as hospital staff scurried past the open door of the room. Eventually he’d set Clark’s hand down, folding it neatly over the other one. 

He’d left the room, walking in sterile halls filled with people who didn’t know him, and couldn’t hold it against him that he still could not say it back. 

It became a tradition. White lilies for Lillian, and white tulips for Clark. A lesser man may have been considered sentimental, but fortunately he was not a lesser man. He remembered both of them with a reverence and pain both exquisite and deeply personal. They’d both loved him far beyond what he felt he deserved. They’d both hurt him far beyond what he felt he was able to handle. He’d destroyed Lionel for Lillian, and he would destroy Kal for Clark. 

~~~

_Stars exploded behind his eyes when his forehead slammed into the wall. He could feel the rough brick rending the skin of his knuckles, palms, and fingertips as he clawed at it. The coppery musk of blood filled his nose, a frantic, screaming voice inside his head knew it was his. Pain blossomed vicious and sanguinary, searing along his right shoulder, writhing through the muscles of that arm as the weight against him fell away. The seductive pull of oblivion whispered softly, and he felt himself being pulled slowly into it as he dropped to his knees._

He woke slowly, the sound of dripping water drifting into his ears, insistent and torturous. Lex could feel resistance through his arms, the familiar sensation of being bound. When he moved them experimentally, only the left one cooperated. An intense wave of pain and nausea assured him that his right arm would be remaining uncooperative. He could feel the give of a mattress below him and the warmth of a blanket around him. The faint rustle of sheets slid beneath his bare back when he moved. Cool air blew gently against his bare feet from an air conditioning vent somewhere overhead. 

He opened an eye and then slowly opened the other. The room was dark, and it felt both suffocating and small. He tentatively touched his face, feeling a sticky mess near his left eye. Careful investigation located the source, a painful tear across his forehead, the skin puckered and pulling apart, sticky with congealing blood. Gradually his eyes became accustomed enough to see the blurred lines of furniture, lumpy and misshapen in the darkness. A door opened to his left, admitting a solid figure accompanied by a paltry wedge of light. The dripping sound became slightly louder with the open door and then stopped. The light from the doorway bathed the room in faint shades of blue and gray before it narrowed abruptly to a dim thread. The figure walked in silently, dropping into a chair beside the bed.

“Where..?” Lex asked in a hoarse voice, thick and dry like his tongue. The figure shifted, and the cool surface of a glass pressed unceremoniously into his left hand. He took it, drank it down carefully, and tried again. “Where am I?”

“Motel room,” the man replied, and his voice was familiar. It took a moment to place him as Jack Marganets, the head of Lex’s personal security detail. It’s a position that he’d held for all of a week. 

“How long have I been out?”

“Two hours, Mr. Luthor.”

Fuck. Lex tried to sit up again and gritted his teeth as he immediately regretted it. “Did you acquire the target?”

A pregnant pause. “He was injured, but managed to elude us.”

“Unacceptable.”

An almost imperceptible shrug in the semidarkness. “Hire someone else.”

“A tempting thought, but unfortunately not a feasible solution,” Lex retorted, finally pushing up to sit. There were not many people left who were willing to work bodyguard duty for Lex Luthor. To call it a high-risk job would be a laughable understatement. His body screamed protests at him and he ignored them, draping his legs off the side of the bed and standing shakily. 

Jack shook his head. “You should rest.”

Lex snorted, then took a shaky step toward the pale line of light edging an austere door. “Call Toby,” he responded flatly. “Tell him to meet us at the penthouse.”

He stumbled carefully toward that door, pushing into a spartan bathroom. With a grimace, he managed the button and zipper on his pants and leaned forward, holding himself upright by splaying the fingers of his left hand out against the wall. His right arm hung limply away from him, and he chewed at his lower lip as he moved his right forearm slowly close enough to hold himself steady, his eyes watering from the pain. A continuous stream of urine hit the mark and he sighed audibly, leaning heavily into the support of his left arm and closing his eyes until it stopped. 

He blinked slowly, pushing back from the wall and zipping himself up. His face in the mirror above the small sink looked barely human, streaked with caked blood, dark circles under his eyes the color of fresh bruises, and his lip split. The shape of his shoulder looked _wrong_ , swollen and already bruising in shades of black, blue, crimson, and green. Lex steeled his jaw, giving the doorframe an assessing look. He pushed away from the sink, took the few unsteady steps, and then slammed his shoulder against it with the weight of his upper body behind that movement. A roar of pain burst from his raw lips as his shoulder popped back into place. The pain lessened then, settling from excruciating agony to a throbbing ache.

Jack glanced at Lex from his shadowy post in the chair, and Lex shook his head. He sucked in a deep breath and steadied himself, his jaw remaining clenched as he stepped back into the bathroom, closing the door. He slid his belt from its loops and unfastened his pants, letting them fall. The shower steamed against his skin, and he watched the water run red in circles around the drain at his feet, fading gradually lighter and lighter. His forehead stung from the impact of the water when he looked up, letting it rush against his face. 

_The gunshot was loud between them, the kryptonite bullet ripping through Kal’s abdomen and spraying Lex with his blood. Lex dropped the gun between them, seething “fuck you,” against Kal’s slack lips and struggling to breathe as Kal tightened his hand around Lex’s throat._

_Kal’s eyes glowed red and he staggered back, his hand dropping to grab Lex’s shoulder and spinning him to face the wall. His voice was husky, dark with rage and pain against Lex’s ear. “You’ll pay for that one, Luthor.”_

Lex stepped from the shower, patting gently at his injured arm with a towel and carefully pulling his pants back on. Fastening the button was difficult, but the raging pain in his arm and shoulder was more subdued and the numbness was slowly fading. 

He left the bathroom, and Jack looked over from his seat beside the bed as Lex returned to the dimly lit room. 

“Where are my shoes?”

The arch in Jack’s eyebrows was revealed in the muted light from the bathroom doorway, and he nodded toward the foot of the bed. Lex saw them, stained crimson over black leather, and dropped to sit on the foot of the bed. He stabilized his right arm against his stomach and then carefully donned his socks and shoes, using his left hand. 

“The target will be watching the penthouse, Mr. Luthor.”

Lex smirked. “I’m counting on it.”

Jack shook his head. “You are becoming a very difficult man to keep alive,” he remarked dryly.

“You knew that when I hired you. Losing your nerve?”

A smirk. “Not my nerve. Just the majority of my team.”

“They will be replaced,” Lex replied dismissively as he rose from the bed. “Let’s go.”

Jack crossed to a heavier door, opening it and glancing outside quietly with a gun in his hand. After a moment, he left the room and strode out into the faint blue of predawn light. Lex followed while holding his arm against his bare chest, his gaze steely and distant.

_Lex kept his eyes steady, challenging. “You’re delusional.”_

_Kal smirked and licked his lips slowly, his eyes lascivious. Lex clenched his jaw tightly, and Kal leaned in closer, their lips almost touching. “Am I?”_

_Lex glared angrily at him, Kal’s hand wrapping around the base of his throat. Kal pressed against him and Lex’s right hand moved slowly from inside his coat, even as he wondered if he could do this when the face so close to his was so much like Clark’s._

The car purred slowly through the streets, and Lex watched the dawn through the window. The building housing his penthouse rose before them, a mammoth structure of glass and steel in the strengthening daylight. In front of the door, two men in black coats stood waiting, dark sunglasses covering their eyes. The car stopped in front of the building, and the men flanked Lex as he strode inside, still cradling his arm against his chest. 

When he reached the penthouse, Toby was waiting. He looked Lex over and shook his head, smirking. “You stupid bastard,” Toby said, quietly and with hints of admiration in his voice. 

Lex smirked back and dropped to sit in a leather chair, his eyes focusing on the two guards as Toby crouched beside him and began to examine his shoulder and face.

“We don’t have much time. I expect the target to be here soon.” He glared at Toby and clenched his jaw as Toby’s fingers pressed into the fleshy joint of his shoulder experimentally. “ _Fuck!_ ”

“Don’t yell at me, asshole. You’re the one who fucked up your shoulder,” Toby scolded with a grin as he reached into his bag and handed Lex a couple of pills. 

Lex shook his head softly. “No, I need to be coherent for this.”

Toby shook his head and set the pills down on the arm of the chair, wrapping a bandage around Lex’s arm and shoulder to support the joint. “And I need to be seriously gone for this crazy shit.”

He reached up and applied multiple butterfly bandages to the gash across Lex’s forehead. 

Lex waved his left hand dismissively, his icy eyes returning to the two guards. “No excuses this time. Eliminate the target.”

“You were in our sights, Mr. Luthor. The risk of hitting you was far too high,” one of them responded, with an undercurrent of defensive justification. 

“I sincerely hope that won’t stop you if it happens again,” Lex arched a brow as the man’s jaw went slack for a moment before he nodded agreement. “Good,” Lex confirmed. 

He looked away, his eyes studying the wall of plate glass windows while Toby worked on his injuries. Lex felt the sharp sting of an injection and a soft tingling in his shoulder, the pain gradually ebbing away without any of the accompanying narcotic grogginess. He really didn’t pay Toby well enough. He’d have to change that.

Toby left the room and returned with a glass of scotch and a shirt. He set the glass down as Lex stood and slid his left arm into the shirt, letting the right sleeve drape uselessly at his side as he buttoned the shirt with his left hand. 

Toby picked up the scotch and handed it to him. Lex took a swallow, relishing the sharp burn at the back of his throat. “The usual payment is waiting for you on my desk.”

With a grin, Toby headed off to get it and leave. “Get some sleep, Lex. You look like shit.”

Lex smirked and shook his head, walking toward the windows. He stood there, waiting and watchful as Metropolis came to life around him. 

_Lex jerked away, his voice solid and menacing. “Don’t touch me.”_

_Kal only laughed, shaking his head as if amused by his own private joke. “You’d like nothing better.” His grin was all teeth bared and feral joy, his eyes narrowing with the gleam of a predator in their depths. “Think about it, Lex. All of the Clark, none of the guilt.”_

_Lex growled at him, and Kal’s grin only widened. “Hit a nerve, didn’t I? Not a difficult thing to do where you’re concerned.” He leaned in closer, his nose brushing against Lex’s softly, and his eyes piercing. “Clark may have loved you, Lex, but I own you.”_

_The words burned into him, staining him, and Lex wanted nothing more than to stop wanting the thing in front of him, to just hate him._

Lex opened his eyes, just now realizing that he had closed them, and grimaced. He took another swallow of the scotch. The guards were still in the penthouse, one standing beside the door, another closer to him and the windows. Jack was roaming somewhere in the corridor outside of the penthouse. The man standing near Lex extended his hand, palm up and containing a dull silvery bullet with a faint green tint. 

Taking it, Lex left the window and returned to the chair, setting his glass on the table beside it. He pinched the bridge of his nose and resolutely ignored the dull ache in his shoulder, shifting his weight in the chair to accommodate it. He was so tired, exhaustion a dead weight in his limbs held at bay only with the relentless energy of his desire to end this. 

Kal was proving unsurprisingly capable of downsizing his security detail with ruthless efficiency. Lex sighed and retrieved his scotch, draining the glass and setting it aside. He examined the bullet carefully, his jaw clenching tightly. It should have killed Kal. It had been designed to explode inside of him, to spread the kryptonite as far as possible and make it nearly impossible to remove all of it. The mechanism in the bullet must have somehow jammed and the weapon had failed. It was also possible that they’d underestimated how much exposure it would take to kill Kal. Lex glared at the bullet thoughtfully, considering his options. He had one left, his fail-safe. 

_The thing in front of him had Clark’s face and that sent a familiar longing ache through him, but not his eyes. The eyes were different, harder and colder. Lex focused on them because they grounded him, fed his rage. Those eyes regarded Lex with wary amusement and scorn, as if Kal couldn’t quite reconcile himself to the idea that Lex could possibly present such a problem. Lex forced himself to remain still and maintain eye contact, standing against the wall with the lifeless bodies of two of his security detail crumpled beside him. Kal braced his hands on either side of Lex’s head and leaned in, his voice conversational._

_“You’re becoming a serious pain in the ass, Luthor.”_

_Lex merely smirked back at him, and Kal drew a fingertip slowly down his cheek. The physical contact made his skin crawl even as desire burned in him, and he knew it was intended to. At that moment, he hated himself as much as he hated Kal, and in the diminishing of one he used the other to keep him going._

Gunshots and breaking glass shattered his thoughts. Lex arched a brow, glancing toward the windows as he closed his fist around the bullet. He winced internally as Kal pulled his lip into a snarl at one of his bodyguards, his fist connecting solidly with the bones of the man’s face in a sickening crunch. In a blur of motion, Kal wrapped an arm around the other guard’s neck, pinning him against his body. This was swiftly punctuated by the distinct sound of the guard’s neck snapping, a garbled cry strangled in his throat. 

Kal let the body slump on his arm and dropped him carelessly to the floor, stalking closer to Lex with the fluid grace of a predatory cat. Lex watched, keeping his face impassive. 

_“You have no idea what I’m capable of,” Clark’s eyes were flat, promising things that Lex wondered if he could even define, let alone deliver._

“I expected you sooner.” Lex rose smoothly from the chair, facing Kal. 

_“Really. Why don’t you fill me in?” Lex answered, his voice neutral, curious._

Kal sneered at him, arms folded across his chest and making no effort to hide the smoke-ringed bullethole in his shirt or the unquestionable absence of an injury that gap in his shirt’s fabric displayed. “I was unavoidably detained.”

_Clark rose from the chair, walking a few paces away, his voice smug. “Let’s just say that when I’m through showing the world what I can do, I’ll have everything I’ve ever wanted. I may be even richer than you.”_

Leveling his icy blue eyes with their barely leashed fury at Kal, Lex replied. “How… unfortunate,” with a slow smirk crossing his lips. 

_“Maybe you’re right to get away from your folks. Maybe I should do the same. If my father wants the mansion so much, he can have it. I never wanted to live in Smallville, anyway.” It was a challenge, and Lex knew that when he said it. He wanted to see if Clark, this Clark, would meet it._

A shudder in the air, and Kal had him pinned against the wall, his snarling face mere inches away. “He’s gone. You can’t bring him back, Lex.”

_Clark had looked at him and replied. “You can come with me.”_

“I have you to thank for that,” Lex stared with defiant rage at Kal.

_Lex found himself answering before he even knew what he would say. “Nobody’s using the penthouse in Metropolis. We can stay there.”_

Kal glared back at him, his hand tightening around Lex’s throat, his teeth bared. “You never fucking quit, do you? What will it take to get you off my back, Luthor?”

_He would never forget Clark’s answer, it had flared white in his chest where hope was remembering how to exist again. “Clark Kent and Lex Luthor. I like the sound of that.”_

Lex smirked, his voice conversational. “You could stop being so resistant to death,” he replied callously. 

Kal grabbed his shoulders and slammed Lex hard against the wall. The pain was severe and he choked on it, the bullet flying from his outstretched hand. “Fuck!”

“Let it go.” Kal’s face was still furious, but his grip loosened.

“You’ll have to kill me first,” Lex snarled back. 

Kal glared at him, his jaw clenched with fury, and then he lurched away from the wall as the sound of gunfire erupted from somewhere behind him. His momentum spun Lex around and sent him stumbling into a table, bracing himself against the impact with his left arm and side. Lex felt another flash of pain from his forehead as a couple of the butterfly bandages gave way. He glanced back at the splintered hole left by a bullet in the wall, and swore under his breath as he heard Jack scream in pain from the penthouse foyer. His security detail had again been completely eliminated. Shit.

A whoosh of air behind him and Kal’s arm wrapped around his chest, pulling him back. Lex growled and thrashed against him. “What the fuck are you doing?”

Kal’s hand closed around the front of Lex’s throat and his voice, dark and husky, breathed against Lex’s ear. “No more talking.”

His lips brushed against Lex’s face, where Lex could feel the gash dripping blood slowly down his cheek. Kal breathed in, his tongue flicking out and licking a steady path along the trail of blood on his cheek. 

Lex jerked his face away. “You sick son of a bitch,” he bristled quietly as he felt Kal’s hips grind against him. A soft chuckle by way of an answer against his ear, and Kal let go of him. Lex turned and Kal pushed against him, Lex backing away slowly with each step.

The air between them crackled with tension, Lex’s lips curled into a snarl as Kal leered at him, using his body to force Lex backward through the living room and into his bedroom. Kal’s hands dragged slowly up his sides, gripping handfuls of Lex’s shirt and tearing it in half, the pieces fluttering down beside them.

Lex’s glower was half hatred, half lust as Kal pulled him close, yanking the belt out of Lex’s pants and snapping the leather in the air beside them suggestively. He pulled Lex close, nipping at his bandaged shoulder as he unfastened Lex’s pants, sliding them down to pool on the floor around his feet. Lex growled and winced away from him, and Kal smirked, shoving both hands hard against Lex’s chest and toppling him back to fall in an undignified sprawl on his bed. Lex glared up at him, inching backward as Kal stalked across the floor toward the bed, shedding his shirt and pants as he moved. He crossed the bed on hands and knees toward Lex with leisurely grace, green eyes burning into him. 

Lex’s back hit the headboard at the same moment that Kal’s predatory crawl reached him, lips smashing into his violently. Lex growled again under his breath, crushing his mouth against Kal’s and biting into him. They kissed as if it was a war in and of itself, tongues crashing together, teeth tearing into lips with the force of three years of pent-up frustration, foiled plots, and assassination attempts.

Lex cried out in pain as Kal’s fingers dug into his shoulders, his legs wrapping around Kal’s torso as he ground up against him, panting. Kal bit down into the soft flesh of his throat, worrying it with his teeth, guttural sounds escaping him. Lex’s hands clawed into Kal’s hair, yanking his head back, injury disregarded as his synapses fired, blending pain and pleasure together with dizzying intensity. Kal jerked back up to sit and dragged Lex with him, pulling him into his lap. Lex tilted his head back, his eyes closing tightly as Kal sucked at his throat, thrusting against him in a steady grind. He pushed two fingers into Lex’s mouth, groaning against his throat as Lex slicked them with spit. 

Lex exhaled through gritted teeth as Kal’s hand slid down his back and he pushed a finger into him, following it roughly with the second. Lex rocked his hips, fucking himself open on Kal’s fingers as Kal panted against his throat. 

Kal moved his face away from Lex’s throat, lust-darkened eyes searing into him as he withdrew his fingers and thrust hard into him. The stretching burn fired along Lex’s spine, obliterating Clark’s face from his thoughts. Lex sucked in a breath and hissed a moan, staring at Kal with slitted eyes as he bucked in his arms, clawing at his back. The pain was intense, steadying his resolve exactly when he needed it to.

Kal’s hands pawed frantically at Lex’s writhing body, searching for a grip he could maintain; sweat dripping down between damp curls, struggling through shuddering breaths and exhaling groaned gasps with barely articulate words. Lex squeezed his eyes closed.

_“It’s still strange to think he and Rickman were once best friends. Think we’ll ever end up like that?” Clark’s face was worried, bathed in setting sunlight that caught the faint stubble along his jawline._

Kal was pounding rougher into him, urgency all but obliterating any rhythm in his movements. Lex sunk his teeth savagely down on the soft side of Kal’s throat, desperately willing his mind to stop, rutting his body frantically into Kal’s thrusts. Muscles coiled and rippled through him, aching with need, pushing for release, for the end. Kal thrust into him again, and Lex lost control, screaming wordlessly as hot liquid spurted from him and then within him when Kal barked a short, gasping groan.

_“Trust me, Clark. Our friendship is going to be the stuff of legend.”_

Lex pushed away, his body protesting painfully at the abrupt withdrawal and abuse. He stumbled off the bed, limbs aching as he forced them to move. Kal slumped into the rumpled sheets, gasping for breath while Lex staggered from the bedroom.

He made his way shakily to his study and his desk, propping himself up on trembling arms, his chest heaving and papers fluttering away as he shoved his hands angrily over its surface, his right shoulder screaming in agony. The panic button was hidden artfully in the smooth wood panels on top, and Lex closed his eyes tightly when his fingers found it and pressed down. He dropped his head between his shoulders, dry sobs choking in his throat as he let the memories consume him during the seconds that he had left.

_“Lex?” God, he was beautiful, long tousled curls and bright green eyes._

_“Three months on a deserted island was almost worth it to see the look on your face right now.” And he had meant every word, more than he could possibly convey. That moment made all of it bearable._

It was somehow fitting that he saw Clark’s face now as it was then, eyes soft and happy, and a beaming smile overtaking his features. The warmth Lex had felt and the solid weight of Clark’s arms around him had been the only part of coming home that truly felt like coming home.

“I love you too, Clark. I always did.” Lex said finally, as the roar filled his ears, finishing this and sending him home. 

~~~

The animated hum in the evening sky of Metropolis was rent by fiery orange with undercurrents of green, the explosion illuminating the night. Flakes of ash and burning debris rained down on the sidewalks as the building burned through the night and most of the following day, a towering column of fiery gray smoke ascending skyward that could be seen from miles away.


End file.
